Seven New Zealanders attended the recent General Assembly of the World Evangelical Alliance, in Indonesia: Stuart Lange, Rick Pierce, Brian Winslade, Glyn Carpenter, Rachel Afeaki Taumoepeau, Jay Matenga, and – based in the USA – Chris Elisara.

The WEA represents some 600+ million evangelical Christians, including Pentecostals. There are national evangelical alliances in 130 countries. NZCN is one of those.

The emphases at the Assembly included the absolute necessity of holistic disciple-making, and inter-generational leadership.

The most delightful thing about the Assembly, though, was the fellowship and interaction with evangelical leaders from all over the world, and the opportunities to learn from one another.

It was also good to see some Kiwis elected to key positions within the WEA: Jay as Executive Director WEA Mission’s Commission, Rachel as Regional General Secretary of the South Pacific (replacing Glyn), and Brian as the South Pacific representative on the International Council, of which he is now the chair.

WEA General Assembly Digest: Discipleship

The theme of our General Assembly was ‘Your Kingdom Come’. We are praying and longing for God’s Kingdom to be manifested on earth. It comes by God’s will being done. Therefore we commit ourselves to “…make disciples of all nations…” and help them obey everything that Jesus has commanded (Mt 28:19-20).

Our theme and commitment led us to our corporate response – Decade of Disciple-Making, when the global Evangelical community will be revitalized and realigned toward holistic intentional disciple-making. This is not about a program or a project, it is about a lifestyle and relationships. It is when every believer is fully committed to becoming like Jesus and is inviting others into a journey of Christ-likeness in every area of their lives.

We are encouraged that, according to the GA Evaluation, 87% of the participants were impacted by the call to the Decade of Disciple-Making and want to be involved. And 83% of EA leaders anticipate their alliances to be engaged in it. Pray with me that God will empower us to effectively do his will in a way that is appropriate to our times and contexts. Pray for a transformational ripple-effect from General Assembly across the WEA membership and beyond. Pray for the evangelical alliances as they seek to spread the shared vision by encouraging its participants towards disciple-making and providing opportunities for connection, learning, and collaboration.

Thank you for responding to this call and championing the decade of holistic disciple-making.

Sincerely,

Bp Efraim Tendero
Secretary General / CEO
World Evangelical Alliance

Author: Dr Stuart Lange

Dr Stuart Lange is the National Director of the NZCN and is a Senior Research Fellow at Laidlaw College, where he was formerly Vice Principal. Stuart wrote and presented the historical DVD documentary Te Rongopai: 200 years of the Gospel in New Zealand, 1814-2014.